Unconscious. Vulnerable. A mind is susceptible to any torment in sleep. Again and again, as I slip out of the world, I find myself transported to a land only possible in a parallel universe. Nothing in reality can compare. At first the darkness lies like a black blanket tossed over my head, but soon my eyes adjust. The entire room has a deep-green glow; angular, metal machinery with green liquids bubbling inside a glass column. The chilling air pinches my nerves. Rattling from the grates beneath my feet reverberates after ever step. I know we shouldn’t be here. My heart’s racing, and even though sweat drips from my brow, it’s cold. I glance to the sides. The passing of each second seems to drain the life from my sister, mother, and father. We’re trapped. No matter where we go, they’ll find us. Soon we’re surrounded. They look as if their blood flows black through their veins, and the emerald illumination of the rooms dies the pigment of their skin. Mechanical fragments seem to have latched into their bodies. Somehow I break away from the enclosure, only to look back and see them grab my sister and insert a retractable needle from their wrist into her neck. The screaming ends, but its echo rings in my ears. Running through the metal maze I stumble into an empty corridor with no way out. Within a moment I’m confined by their cold grasp. My sister, mother, and father appear. They’ve already started to change. The hues of their skin have become ghostly. Again the retractable needs come forth, and the three of them pierce my neck. The darkness envelops me; this is a dream I won’t wake up from.